From hardware pilot to purchase order: what is missing from this deal?

A hardware pilot can work and still leave you without an order. The product meets the test conditions. The customer likes the result. Then the next conversation becomes another demonstration, another internal review, or another request for data.

Before you spend more engineering time, ask what buying decision the evidence is supposed to support. A better demonstration will not answer a question nobody has agreed to ask.

I start with the decision the customer needs to make. Technical proof tells you whether the product works. The commercial work is connecting that proof to an owner, a funded request and a next step somebody can actually take.

This worksheet is for one opportunity, not your whole pipeline. Use it to find the first missing commitment. It complements the hardware business case template, which develops the broader operating and economic argument.

1. Name the decision after the pilot

“Move forward” is too vague. Does the customer need to approve a production purchase, vendor onboarding, a proposal for one site, or another evaluation? Those decisions are different. Write the specific request in language your customer would recognize.

Separate the person who likes the product from the person who can authorize that next step. A supportive technical contact may be essential without having purchasing authority. Ask them how the decision gets made rather than assigning that authority yourself.

2. Find the funding owner

A trial budget tells you how the trial was funded. It does not establish where a production purchase will sit. Name the person who owns the relevant budget and what they still need to evaluate.

If the funding path is unknown, write “unknown.” That is a useful next conversation. An optimistic assumption placed in a spreadsheet looks more settled than it is.

3. Agree on evidence the buyer will accept

Define what will be measured, under which operating conditions, and who will accept the result. “Successful pilot” can mean different things to engineering, operations and finance.

Use the same acceptance criterion in the test plan and the commercial conversation. If the customer changes the criterion, make the change explicit. Otherwise, your team can finish the work while the buying decision keeps moving.

4. Give implementation an owner

A purchase introduces work inside the customer’s operation. Someone may need to arrange integration, training, maintenance, site access or a change to an existing process. Ask who owns that work and what they need before committing.

This is where a technically strong proposal can become difficult to approve. Put the customer’s implementation responsibilities beside your own. A promise of an easy installation is less useful than a named person who has reviewed the actual requirements.

5. Put the next action on the buyer’s calendar

“Follow up next week” describes your activity. It does not describe the customer’s commitment. Record the next buyer-owned action, its owner and an agreed date.

That might be an operating review, a budget discussion or confirmation of the acceptance test. You are looking for a real step, not a date invented to keep a forecast current. If nobody has agreed to it, mark it as proposed.

6. Connect the order to payment

A purchase order, delivery, acceptance, an invoice and cash received are distinct events. For this opportunity, record what triggers invoicing and when payment would be due under the agreed terms. If the terms have not been agreed, say so.

This field is a planning question, not permission to invent customer terms. It makes the last stretch of the deal visible so the conversation does not stop at “they said yes.”

A worked example

Use the blank that matters

Complete the six fields below with your champion. Save the brief, then choose the first unresolved item that prevents the next decision. Assign that conversation to a person. A more complete worksheet is not purchase approval; a customer commitment is the evidence you are trying to obtain.

For the broader transition, read Pilot to Production. To examine the rest of your commercial process, use the Hardware GTM Diagnostic.